Customer Reviews

Dr Cyclops [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a classic. If many of its themes are a cliche today, it is only because this film was one of the first to use them. The visual effects still hold up well. Conventional techniques like rear-screen projection were used to maximum effect and are not obvious despite the color photography, still a novelty in 1941. The basic concept of miniaturizing living creatures via exposure to radium is, of course, scientifically naive, but director Ernest Schoedsack did his best to give it a weird plausibility. The directing, acting and editing are all fine. On the other hand, the dialogue is rather weak (my reason for not giving it 5 stars) - one need only to compare it with the dialogue Schoedsack's own "King Kong" of 1933. Albert Dekker, as Dr. Thorkel, has the best lines and the best acting role; the others did well with the material they had. Overall, this is much superior to the movies of the fifties and sixties with similar themes.

There's simply no way you can compare a movie from the 1940's in terms of special effects with todays CGI-laden fare. That said Dr. Cyclops uses eveything it can to create this effective sci-fi thriller.

The story involves "Mad Scientist" Dr. Thorkel (Albert Dekker) who summons three scientists (Thomas Coley, Janice Logan, Charles Halton) to his remote South American laboratory to seek their advice on his secret project. Along the way they are forced to bring muleskinner (Victor Kilian) along.

It turns out that the evil doctor has discovered the secret of miniaturization. To prevent them from cashing in on his discovery Thorkel shrinks the three scientists, the muleskinner and nosey local Pedro (Frank Yaconelli) to miniscule size. The rest of the film chronicles their efforts to escape.

Again...the effects really take the game in this movie...utilizing clever camera tricks, miniatures, and over-sized props, the film really does a great job in showing these shrunken victims and the perils they encounter trying to escape.

This is a thoughtful, interesting, and fun film. Definitely keep more than one eye open when viewing this film!

I really like this movie. A little campy, but good story line, decent special effects... a classic. When will we get a DVD version with added features???

This movie ranks right up there with The Incredible Shrinking Man! The special effects are great for their time. I definately recommend this movie to anyone who is into these kind of movies.

DR. CYCLOPS, created by the same team that gave us KING KONG in 1933, is the first of the genre that eventually gave us THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN, FANTASTIC VOYAGE, HONEY I SHRUNK THE KIDS and TV's LAND OF THE GIANTS as well as THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN, WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST, and ATTACK OF THE 50-FOOT WOMAN.

Hollywood had its first go at creating an outsize universe where earthworms and raindrops become deadly adversaries, and the effects were rarely better. The film was shot in Technicolor, a big-budget investment in 1940. The story and script, though, are lumbering and less than engrossing, unfortunately relegating this groundbreaking Sci-Fi film to the status of an also-ran. As a result, DR. CYCLOPS has largely been forgotten, though it was regularly shown on the Saturday Night Creature Features circuit.

By far the best characterization is Albert Dekker as Dr. Cyclops himself, wickedly shaven-headed and mad, right down to his Heinrich Himmler spectacles. His at first frighteningly dispassionate observations of his miniaturized test subjects are just as fearsome as the psychopathy that grips him as the film progresses. In many ways, DR. CYCLOPS can be seen as a film of its time, reflecting the morphing of the coldly intellectual Social Darwinism of the early 20th Century into the totalitarianism of Naziism, Fascism, and Stalinism. This is well worth seeing if you can find it.

It's hard to believe that I never saw this film as a kid! I never missed the weekly sci-fi/horror films on TV Saturday night and afternoon but , for some reason I never got around to this one. I was in a nostalgic mood this Halloween and wanted to watch some of my old favorites. I decided to watch this film as a starter for my Halloween horror marathon. It is a nice surprise to watch something so old that you have never seen and for the most part this film did not disappoint me. It has good special effects and typical story line but it just wasn't familiar to me and that is why I give it 3 stars. I can understand other reviewer's giving this a higher rating because they grew up with it and it is special to each of them. This is available on DVD on Ultimate Sci-Fi classic collection volume 2. The DVD transfer and print are really nice!

I enjoyed this movie.

There are some really cool scenes like when Dr. Cyclops puts on his helmet and turns on his cool machine. It gives a really eerie effect.

The actor who plays the doctor is very well cast and must certainly go down as one of the classic villains in horror history.

The down side is it takes what could be a true story (shrinking people) and puts in things that are impossible.

For example Doc Cyclops first dresses his little friends in very simple clothes made out of hankerchiefs.

But somehow in just a few hours they inexplicibly stack up a bunch of books that are bigger than they are to open the door and then create all new cloths for themselves. These aren't just simple clothes either like the girl has a nice blue dress.

Also when they do this it seems like they are actually enjoying themselves like they are having a good time.

But after that it gets more realistic again.

Except for those few things I mentioned above this is a believeable story and could really happen.

Recommended further viewing:

The Manster
The Thing (from another world)
The Four Skulls Of Jonathan Drake
Horror Hotel
The Blob (with Steve McQueen)
The Flesh Eaters
The Indestructible Man
The Brain That Wouldn't Die
Not Of This Earth (original)
The Incredible Shrinking Man
IT ! (The Terror From Beyond Space)
Invasion Of The Saucer Men
The Hideous Sun Demon
The Fly / The Return Of The Fly / The Curse Of The Fly

Jeff Marzano

The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)

This mad man is pure pleasure, The way he tortures our little friends that acidentally fall into the palm of his hand (Literally)

all it is about is a bald headed dr named dr. cyclops that created a radium machine that reduces people to one fifth their normal size

Director Ernest Schoedsack made the seminal King Kong in 1933, but this effort is a technicolour B movie. The subject of reducing humans to doll-size may prefigure Jack Arnold's The Incredible Shrinking Man, but Schoedsack's treatment lacks Arnold's inventiveness and fun, in spite of the Christian Science moral of the Richard Matheson script. The title comes from the legend of the battle between Ulysses and the giant Cyclops, and also linked to Dr Cyclops' poor eyesight and need to wear Coke bottle lense spectacles. One could also view the doctor's view of science to be as "shortsighted" as the doctors who experimented in the Nazi concentration camps, a parallel which only hindsight brings. Cyclops' brutal ambition is quickly established when we see him eliminate an obstacle, by exposure to the radium ore which Cyclops is mining in the Peruvian jungle. The murder is setup with a glowing green tint and shadows on the wall. While Albert Dekker's physical size fits Cyclops' inflated self-image (is it madness?) and Dekker's skill as an actor creates a favourable expectation, the introduction of the visiting consultants who will become his victims quickly brings us thuddingly down to B level. It's not just that the performances are either non-charismatic flat or stereotypical eccentric, it's also there types - the feuding romantic couple, the aged academic Dr Bullfinch, the comic relief man of the world donkey owner, and the servile latino with dog. Bullfinch's lines have that stiff formality so we know that he is an intellectual - "I can scarcely descend to the indignity of bickering", but as Bullfinch, Charles Halton is probably the most likeable of the lot. The group's arrival viewed from behind jungle foliage suggests both dread and also the Charles Laughton Night of the Hunter's journey down the river. The special effects associated with the reduction involve mostly rear projection process photography, with one giant prop hand, and the use of an alligator, sometimes real and other times presumably a miniature. There is a disappointing inconsistency of scale, and the victims are seen after their reduction wearing ridiculously styled white clothes that become coloured without explaination. And the music is of the "little elves" kind, annoying since it is part of the constant score as a convention of the times. However Cyclops has an amusing sm wardrobe, and Schoedsack provides 2 nice cuts - from a car wheel to a wagon wheel to show the descent into the less jungle, and a funny reaction shot of the dog smiling when his name is mentioned.